so ive been running FT8 for about a year and a half now and yeah its great for racking up contacts and working DX i wouldnt have a shot at otherwise on 100w and a dipole, but honestly after a while it starts to feel like im just clicking buttons and watching a map fill up. theres no... conversation? you know what i mean.

anyway i stumbled onto JS8Call a few months ago and have been poking at it on and off. the concept is cool - basically takes the weak signal magic of FT8 but lets you actually type messages back and forth instead of the scripted exchange. ive made a handful of contacts on it but activity seems pretty sparse depending on when and where you look. 40m has been the most useful for me so far.

my question i guess is whether people here actually use it regularly or if its more of a novelty. like is there a time of day or frequency setup that works better. also curious if anyone has tried running it for any kind of emcomm or preparedness stuff since ive seen some groups mention it for that purpose. the store-and-forward relay thing seems interesting but i havent fully wrapped my head around how that works in practice.

not trying to abandon FT8 entirely just wondering if JS8Call is worth putting more time into or if im better off maybe getting into PSK31 if i want actual qso-style contacts

JS8Call is legit if you find the right groups using it. the activity problem is real - its not like you can just spin the dial and find a pileup. but there are some nets running on it pretty regularly, there's a few EMCOMM oriented groups that have adopted it specifically because of the store and forward stuff. basically a message can get relayed through other stations that are just sitting there even if theyre not actively watching, which for emergency comms is actually a pretty big deal if you think about it.

for timing i usually check 40m around 7.078 in the evening and there's usually something going on. mornings on 20m can work too depending on where you are. its definitely more like actual ham radio than FT8 in terms of feeling like a conversation. the tradeoff is its slower and yeah way less activity. PSK31 is another option but honestly even that feels kind of dead these days compared to what it was 10-15 years ago. i ran a lot of PSK31 back around 2010 and it was hopping, now not so much.

worth putting time into JS8Call if the conversational aspect matters to you. just dont expect it to feel like FT8 in terms of instant gratification.

honestly the store and forward thing confused me too for a while. the way i understand it now is basically any JS8Call station that hears a message meant for someone else will hold onto it and retransmit it if that station shows up later or if another path opens up. its kind of like a really slow packet network almost. cool in theory and ive seen it work but yeah in practice the network is thin enough that you cant always rely on it.

i still run FT8 probably 80% of the time when im doing digital just because thats where everyone is. but for portable ops or just wanting to actually say something to somebody JS8Call is fun. had a 20 minute back and forth with a guy in Finland last winter on 30m which would have been literally impossible on FT8 format. that alone sold me on keeping it in the rotation.